Friday, May 31, 2013

Astrological Chart of Dwight Eisenhower

Let's take an astrological look at one of the most well-known military commanders of all time, Dwight Eisenhower!

NB: Big caveat here, folks. This chart has a Rodden rating of "DD", which means that two or
more sources have given different birth times, and that while sincere
efforts have been made, there are no conclusive results. Since a chart's
accuracy is based on a very specific moment of birth, unless and until
additional information is found concerning the subject's birth time, the
analysis that follows is based solely on the birth time listed in this
chart, 3:00am.

Heavy Air--Ike's chart has so much air in it, far overpowering any other
element in the chart. Air deals with the mental body--the collection
of our thoughts and ideas and our ability to communicate are two big
examples--so Ike was likely an excellent communicator. Considering the
kind of commander and commander-in-chief that he was, this isn't
surprising. When you're able to easily convey your message to others,
and you do a good job of convincing them to follow you (there's another air trait!), you have a much better chance for success.

Grand Trines in Air--When two planets are trine, they are 120
degrees apart. This is an easy relationship between planets, which
normally you'd consider a good thing, because it means that they are
working well together. Problems can arise, however, because trines
can foster laziness. Think of the person who is so talented at what they
do that they don't ever have to practice it or work at it. There's no
challenge, so it may be difficult for them to improve on what they can
already do.

In Ike's case, he has two grand trines in air. Mercury,
Jupiter and Neptune all trine each other, forming a large triangle in
the chart; you can see it above if you look at the 4, 8, and 12 clock
points. What this means is that anything air-related would come very
easy to Ike. Mercury is the planet of communication, so speaking,
writing, and listening were all skills that Ike likely did very well.
With Mercury in Libra, he would want to build consensus. With Jupiter in
Aquarius, he'd want to expand his message by working through large
groups of people; Aquarius rules things that affect a society as a
whole, for example. Pluto in Gemini would allow for time and flexibility
for the message to be understood. Neptune in Gemini would allow for
creative visualization of the message. On the negative side, grand
trine in air folks can be extremely talkative, and Ike probably wasn't in a
rush to do most things.

Libra = Peace?--Libra is a sign that does well at mediating disputes and
as I mentioned earlier, building consensus among people. One of the
most interesting thing about Eisenhower's terms as President is that
there were no new wars. He ended the Korean War, but no new ones were
started. Libras are typically excellent at avoiding conflict. What can
be a problem, however, is that Libra people tend to avoid conflict even
when it would be the most efficient method of resolving a problem. They
want everyone to get along. That's not to say that they LIKE everyone;
they're human beings, and no one likes everyone else. Eisenhower
certainly had his share of people he didn't like personally.
But generally, he knew how to get them to do what he wanted them to do.

No Water at All--Water rules the emotional body, and there is not one
single planet in a water sign (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) in this
chart. This may have made it challenging for Ike to show emotion and use
his intuition, so likely he wasn't used to doing either. People like
Ike with heavy air in their charts work with
information--intelligence--and "hunches" are not usually viewed in a
positive light. I can see Ike having a conversation with one of his advisers, and the adviser says, "I just have a feeling we should..." and
Ike responding with, "Get me the intel to support that opinion, and we have a place to start the discussion. But until then..."

When he had to be firm, likely he had no problem with it, and "sob
stories" probably didn't move him, either. For a military commander,
this is a fantastic asset, but in his personal life I'm sure there were
many people who might have seen him as undemonstrative. Luckily, Libra
sun and moon balance out some these effects.

Interesting note: People
who have little or no water often lack compassion and can be very cruel.
One example of this is Hitler, who had almost no water in his chart at
all, but Hitler had repressive Capricorn moon backing up as well. Luckily for us, we had Eisenhower instead.

Anyway, that's a quick look at Dwight Eisenhower. Tune in again next Friday for another famous military astrological chart! :)